


Run a Little Faster, Ruin Me a Little Better

by sweetiejelly



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-04-01 01:03:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4000021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetiejelly/pseuds/sweetiejelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Fact: Iris ruins Barry for everyone else.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Run a Little Faster, Ruin Me a Little Better

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moongirl24](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moongirl24/gifts).



> Written for Lene's birthday. Happy birthday, Lene! I meant to write you a trio of 3 different fandom pairings but life got in the way and I only managed to finish one. But I hope this one is okay. More than that, I hope you're having the best birthday! Wishing you a lovely year ahead befitting your lovely self. ♥

i.

Fact: Barry is late to his first date. Late because on his way out, he sees Iris in her bedroom with her headphones on, reading and reading with that look in her eyes, the one that says she's miles away.

Barry loves that look almost as much as he loves Iris' smile, which is the sun. This look - this one is the forest, deep and dark and full of mysteries.

He rubs at the back of his neck and reaches to tap the top of the door frame. It's less of a stretch now. No need to stand on tiptoes to touch. He sways a little, raps his knuckles again. “Ahem.” He clears his throat.

But the music that Iris is listening to, bopping her head to, then bopping - Barry's mouth goes dry - her booty to must be cranked up high. She doesn't hear him at all. She is immersed, an island onto herself.

Barry can't help but smile. Iris gets passionate about stories – both fictitious and true - the way he gets about science. Once, she spent a whole week going “Oh, my god, Barry!” at him as she devoured the Greek mythologies. Another time, she dressed up as a Pharaoh for Halloween because of how obsessed she got with them that year. It’s exactly like when Barry talks her ears off about dissonance or how octopi have three hearts or what the Earth's magnetic fields have to do with aurora borealis.

"So," Barry projects his voice, finally catching Iris' attention. "How do I look?" He holds up his palms then, self-conscious, shoves them into his pockets.

Iris plucks her other ear bud out and really looks at him, assesses him from his head to his toe in a way that makes him fidget.

Well, fidget more.

"You look..." Iris steps in close and makes a loop of her arms, tucks down the label at the back of his neck. "Perfect."

Barry blushes and ducks his head.

"You’re also ten minutes late,” Iris slaps his arm. “Barry! What are you doing? You're going to miss the movie!"

Barry starts. "Oh shit. I'll uh," he turns then turns around again. "I'll see you later."

Iris pops her eyes wide (you better), smiles and finger waves at him. "Later, Bear!" And Barry almost forgets where he's going.

He half trips as he turns. One more awkward smile back at her because he can’t help himself, then he’s barreling down the stairs, shouting a goodbye to Joe (who reminds him he has a curfew).

“Okay!” Barry doesn't intend to stay out (away) that long anyway. And he could be prompt (at times).

He runs and runs, a smile lit upon his face. Cause his night? Already made.

 

ii.

Fiction: Barry is Iris’ boyfriend for five minutes the second Christmas he’s back from college.

“Barry, quick! I need you to pretend-” Iris cuts herself off and drapes all over him as she flashes a fake smile at a little old lady.

“Ms. Mills! This is my boyfriend Barry,” she places her palm over Barry’s chest. “You know, the one I’ve been telling you about?”

Ms. Mills looks him up and down with as much disbelief as Barry’s feeling.

“Yeah, hi, that’s… me, Barry.” He half waves as he tries to decide where to put his hands. “I’m the um, boy-boyfriend.”

Iris knows him, knows he’s struggling. So she makes it easy on him, reaches out to grip his hand, fingers lacing with his the way they have done hundreds of times before. At least this is familiar, natural. They have held hands crossing the street and hiding out from thunder. They have held hands in prayer and over sick beds. They have held hands since they were children with nightlights and night frights.

Iris smiles over-bright at him. “That’s right, baby. You’re stuck with me.”

Barry’s throat works, dry, so suddenly dry. If only. 

“Yup. Like glue.” He presses a chaste kiss to the back of her hand and smiles at her.

She looks back at him like maybe he’s precious, and it’s all too much.

Once Ms. Mills leaves and Iris gets off his lap to sit in the chair opposite, Barry has to ask. “What was-? Why uh-? Um, not that-” He rubs over the back of his neck where it feels like burning.

Iris reaches over and holds his hands again. “I know, Barry! I’m so sorry! That was _so_ weird of me and it’s a long story but I told one white lie because I didn’t want her to set me up with her nephew and somehow it snowballed into this huge thing where she’s always asking about my boyfriend and when she was going to meet him. Anyway, do you know how hard it is to make someone up from scratch? So hard! So, I don’t know. I just started describing _you_ and I’m sorry. Forgive me?” She scrunches up her nose and looks unfairly adorable.

“It’s – it’s totally fine, Iris.” Barry squeezes her hands. “I was just - surprised."

"Ha, surprise, you're my boyfriend!" She jazz-hands it and laughs with him.

“Heh.” Barry looks away. "I’ve...uh, got to go. Finish my Christmas shopping,” he fibs and takes off from Jitters.

Before long, he’s jogging, then sprinting blindly through the crowd. He can’t pretend to pretend. Not for long.

Barry runs, runs till his legs give out and he has to set his hands on his knees, fold over and breathe.

(Breathe. Breathe.

Breathe.)

 

iii.

Fact: Iris thinks about him nonstop since the day Barry told her how he felt about her.

Also fact: Iris thinks not about him but about Eddie, her live-in boyfriend, the one she's in love with.

Barry runs and runs, streaking red all over the city as he contemplates going back in time once more, redoing the first day exactly. But then Joe's life would be in danger again.

Barry can't. He can't lose another parent, can’t risk losing Iris and the rest of Central City – Cisco or Caitlin or even Eddie. He slows, stops, stops running.

 

iv.

Fiction: Barry proposes to Iris in one of the dozens of ways he has envisioned since he saw the future newspaper with the byline “Iris West-Allen.”

He asks her to stand on the rooftop of Jitters before zooming away across the city, spelling the question out in red streaks of light.

He passes her a note like they used to do in school. You’re _my_ hero. Will you marry me? Check yes or no.

He gives her a compilation of all of her articles to date in a beautifully bound book. Separately, he unfolds a replica of the news article from the future. Will you be my West-Allen?

He just asks, simply, down on one knee.

In the end, it’s Iris who asks him. It’s Iris who takes him up to the rooftop of Jitters.

“Barry Allen, I’ve known you since before you shot up taller than me.”

"Yeah." Barry laughs because it’s true. He used to wish himself taller, used to stretch his arms up as far as he could to try to reach the beams.

“You’re my best friend and my family. And I know we’re this weird organism. We’re related and we’re not related all at the same time. And then you told me that you loved me and I freaked out because I didn’t think I loved you the same way. The truth is that I love you – I’ve loved you differently than I’ve loved any other boys. I _know_ you. And you know me. I’ve seen you with pneumonia and I’ve seen you literally at death’s door. I’ve heard you cry your heart out when you first came to live with us. I’ve seen you throw tantrums and you’ve seen me do the same. And I love you for all of it, the good and the bad. You’re my Bear, my Barry.”

Barry feels her hands shaking in his own and squeezes them reassuringly. “I love you, too, Iris.” He kisses her because he gets to do that now. They’ve been dating for three years to the day, taking things slow in the beginning and then not at all.

“Stop distracting me!” Iris pushes him away, laughing. “I um,” she licks the corner of her lips and _Barry_ gets distracted. “I’m trying to propose to you here.”

That snaps Barry out of his trance. “What?” He looks at her in a daze.

“Propose.” She smiles in that knowing way she does when she knows she’s won the argument or the night or you know, life. “When one person asks the other to marry them.”

“Okay, yes.” Barry has no control over his mouth which is straining his cheeks with how wide his smile is.

“No! We’re doing this properly. I haven’t even asked you yet!”

“Okay,” Barry says again and tries to train his face into some semblance of calm. “Yes?”

Iris rolls her eyes a little but she’s smiling too. “Barry Allen,” she reaches into her pockets and brings out a small felt box. “Will you marry me?”

Barry barely gets out his yes this time before Iris is slipping the ring on him and jumping on him at the same time, all legs and lips and smiles.

He holds onto her tight. Then just for the heck of it, he does a lap around the city with Iris flush against him, their laughter running through the streets like a river.

When they get back to their apartment, Barry gives Iris her ring, the one he has been holding onto for months.

“Yes,” she says.

 

v.

Fact: Iris ruins Barry for everyone else.

She ruins him in the best of ways.


End file.
